“When things do go wrong, the impact on individuals is significant,” the CAA acknowledged, adding that there was still “more to do to improve journeys for disabled passengers and those with reduced mobility”.

Heathrow is now one of 10 airports listed as offering “good” access, having been considered “poor” last year.

“The passenger journey on arrival is now much quicker and generally seamless from aircraft to final point,” the CAA said in its comments on the UK’s busiest airport.

Sixteen of the UK’s top 30 airports are rated “very good” for disability access by the CAA – 10 more than last year.

Image copyrightGetty Images

Image caption
Stansted is one airport that needs to improve its access for disabled passengers, the CAA found

The CAA said Manchester’s problems centred on “long waiting times for assistance and issues with the recording and reporting of performance data”.

In some cases, passengers had been left awaiting assistance for more than an hour, which the CAA said was “not an acceptable situation”.

It said Manchester had acknowledged the problem and had implemented a performance improvement plan.

Gatwick, Stansted and Birmingham had been marked down for failing to provide sufficient information about their standards of service, the CAA said.

“In addition, for Stansted, we have concerns about potential delays to passengers’ journeys on arrival from inbound flights.”

All three airports were taking action to remedy these problems, the report said.

The CAA said there were now more than three million requests for disability assistance at UK airports annually – a rise of nearly 80% since 2010.

In all, 83% of people requesting assistance said they were satisfied with the help they received, while 54% were very satisfied.

“The vast majority of passengers’ journeys go smoothly and disabled passengers should have even more confidence to travel from UK airports,” the CAA said.

Related Articles

Image copyright Google Image caption The closure has been described as a “massive blow” for the Cardiff economy Tesco’s Cardiff call centre will close on Friday with 1,100 jobs lost. Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (Usdaw) said it had made “huge efforts” to reverse the decision. In June 2017, Tesco announced the closure, […]

We asked women how they have coped financially after having a baby, following a call by a trade union body for “decently paid” maternity leave. The TUC said statutory maternity pay for UK mothers was among the worst in Europe. Here’s what you had to say. ‘The cost of living is too high’ Priya Virdi, […]

Image copyright PA MPs on the Treasury Committee said they had “lost confidence” in TSB boss Paul Pester after the bank’s IT meltdown. Nicky Morgan, who chairs the committee, has called on the TSB board to give “serious consideration” to whether his position as chief executive is “sustainable”. Thousands of customers were unable to access […]